THE world's only child vaccine against a bacterium that causes diseases including bacterial meningitis and pneumonia will be introduced to China next year. Doctors hope the vaccine will help eradicate some of the country's biggest child killers.

The vaccine, called Prevenar, combats pneumococcal disease and is available in 74 countries and regions in the world and included in the national immunization programs of 16 countries.

The World Health Organization is evaluating the drug and introducing it to child vaccination programs in poor countries, said Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, which makes Prevenar, in the city yesterday. The appraisal result will be known early next year.

According to John Tam, an honorary professor at the faculty of medicine of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, pneumococcal disease is a leading cause of serious illness in children and adults throughout the world.

The disease is caused by a common bacterium, pneumococcus, which can attack different parts of the body and result in bacterial pneumonia, bacteremia, meningitis, otitis medium and sinusitis.

There are more than 90 known pneumococcal types - the 10 most common types account for approximately 62 percent of invasive disease worldwide, experts said.

"WHO estimated that about one million children and five million adults die of invasive pneumococcal disease worldwide every year," Tam said.

Research of 3,578 children in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou from 2000 to 2002 found that 25 percent carried the bacterium and 40 to 50 percent are resistant to penicillin, a major treatment of pneumococcal disease. The bacterium can be spread through spitting.

Source:佚名